Vascular grafts incorporating a stent component at a location along the length of the graft have been described in the patent literature for some time. Many of these descriptions relate to the use of a stent located at at least one end of a vascular graft for the purpose of securing that end of the vascular graft to the luminal surface of the vasculature into which the graft is desired to be implanted. This is done as an alternative to a sutured anastomosis. Ersek, in 1970, taught a bifurcated vascular graft of Dacron® or Teflon® secured at each of its three ends by a stent component; see U.S. Pat. No. 3,657,744.
Other patents teach the use of separate, space-apart stent components along the length of a vascular graft as an alternative way of making a stent-graft. Rhodes, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,154, and Lee, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,917 described expandable vascular grafts incorporating ring-shaped balloon expandable stent components at intervals along the length of the graft. Various graft materials are described by these two patents including PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), ePTFE (porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene), polyurethane and Dacron®. Materials cited for the stent component include stainless steel and tantalum.
WO84/03036 describes a stent-graft intended for as an arteriovenous graft for kidney dialysis.